{"id":3499702,"date":"2024-01-26T11:12:13","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T11:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/?p=3499702"},"modified":"2024-01-26T11:12:13","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T11:12:13","slug":"its-not-the-end-of-the-world-book-assumptions-omissions-spark-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/stories\/2024-01-26\/its-not-the-end-of-the-world-book-assumptions-omissions-spark-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s Not the End of the World\u2019 book assumptions &#038; omissions spark debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"iframe-class\" title=\"Embed Player\" src=\"https:\/\/play.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/29514893\/height\/128\/theme\/modern\/size\/standard\/thumbnail\/yes\/custom-color\/ffffff\/time-start\/00:00:00\/hide-playlist\/yes\/download\/yes\/font-color\/150202\" width=\"100%\" height=\"128\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The multiple crises the planet faces have solutions, says data scientist and head of research at Our World in Data, Hannah Ritchie.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>How to implement them remains a larger question for podcast co-host Rachel Donald, who interviewed Ritchie about her new book, \u201cNot the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>In this episode, Donald challenges Ritchie on assumptions presented in the book, such as the notion that renewable energy will be adopted by low- and middle-income nations simply because it is cheaper.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Ritchie says she intended to write an \u201capolitical\u201d book, declining to discuss policy, but it\u2019s difficult to see how many of the proposals would work without addressing geopolitical roadblocks and challenges that have repeatedly stymied these solutions.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The head of research at online publication\u00a0<em>Our World in Data<\/em>, Hannah Ritchie, joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss her new \u201cradically hopeful\u201d read,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hachettebookgroup.com\/titles\/hannah-ritchie\/not-the-end-of-the-world\/9780316536752\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><em>Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet<\/em><\/a><em>.\u00a0<\/em>While containing a hopeful array of technological advancements and potential fixes to many environmental issues, Mongabay\u2019s review of the book also finds that several challenges to the implementation of these solutions go unaddressed.<\/p>\n<p>Ritchie claims many nations have \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2666792421000664#:~:text=We%20found%20that%2032%20out,GDP%20and%20consumption%2Dbased%20emissions.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">decoupled<\/a>\u201d consumption-based emissions from their economies, for instance, but this is not a consensus opinion among scientists, with some\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S1462901120304342?via%3Dihub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">concluding<\/a>\u00a0there is \u201cno evidence of the kind of decoupling needed for ecological sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In this interview, co-host Rachel Donald probes this question and others.<\/p>\n<p>Solutions to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/list\/deforestation\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">deforestation<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/list\/climate-change\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">climate change<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/list\/biodiversity-crisis\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">biodiversity loss<\/a>\u00a0and many others do exist, but implementing them is far more complex and politically challenging than Ritchie\u2019s book presents. She stresses wanting to write an \u201capolitical\u201d book; however, to address the scale and scope of the environmental challenges the world faces, acknowledging those geopolitical roadblocks seems essential, Donald stresses.<\/p>\n<p>In the book, Ritchie does not wade into that conversation, instead claiming that the affordability of renewables will lead to their widespread adoption, and the book decries alternative economic models (such as degrowth) as being a hindrance to solutions. The author also does not acknowledge or use the well-established\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/series\/planetary-boundaries\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">planetary boundary<\/a>\u00a0framework, which helps the world understand key planetary thresholds inside of which humanity can safely operate. Scientists say we\u2019ve already\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2023\/11\/beyond-climate-oil-gas-and-coal-are-destabilizing-all-9-planetary-boundaries\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">breached<\/a>\u00a0six of those nine boundaries.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related reading from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/series\/planetary-boundaries\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">planetary boundaries<\/a>\u00a0series:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" title=\"\u201cThe nine boundaries humanity must respect to keep the planet habitable\u201d \u2014 Conservation news\" src=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2021\/03\/the-nine-boundaries-humanity-must-respect-to-keep-the-planet-habitable\/embed\/#?secret=ZF5TrXSP1q#?secret=rKFS0QBiGY\" width=\"500\" height=\"497\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" data-secret=\"rKFS0QBiGY\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Citations:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ritchie,\u00a0H. (2024).\u00a0<em>Not the end of the world: How we can be the first generation to build a sustainable planet<\/em>. Little, Brown Spark.<\/p>\n<p>Hubacek,\u00a0K., Chen,\u00a0X., Feng,\u00a0K., Wiedmann,\u00a0T., &amp; Shan,\u00a0Y. (2021). Evidence of decoupling consumption-based CO2 emissions from economic growth.\u00a0<em>Advances in Applied Energy<\/em>,\u00a0<em>4<\/em>, 100074.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2666792421000664#:~:text=We%20found%20that%2032%20out,GDP%20and%20consumption%2Dbased%20emissions.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">doi:10.1016\/j.adapen.2021.100074<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Vad\u00e9n,\u00a0T., L\u00e4hde,\u00a0V., Majava,\u00a0A., J\u00e4rvensivu,\u00a0P., Toivanen,\u00a0T., Hakala,\u00a0E., &amp; Eronen,\u00a0J. (2020). Decoupling for ecological sustainability: A categorisation and review of research literature.\u00a0<em>Environmental Science &amp; Policy<\/em>,\u00a0<em>112<\/em>, 236-244.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S1462901120304342?via%3Dihub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">doi:10.1016\/j.envsci.2020.06.016<\/a>s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The head of research at online publication\u00a0Our World in Data, Hannah Ritchie, joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss her new \u201cradically hopeful\u201d read,\u00a0Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128238,"featured_media":3499736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79716,79718,213530],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3499702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-environment","category-environment-featured"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3499702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3499736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3499702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3499702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3499702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}